Description: Saturday Night Fever is one of those
movies that comes along and seems to change the cultural
temperature in a flash. After the movie's release in 1977,
disco ruled the dance floors, and a blow-dried member of a
TV-sitcom ensemble became the hottest star in the U.S. For
all that, the story is conventional: a 19-year-old Italian
American from Brooklyn, Tony Manero (John Travolta), works
in a humble paint store and lives with his family. After
dark, he becomes the polyester-clad stallion of the local
nightclub; Tony's brother, a priest, observes that when Tony
hits the dance floor, the crowd parts like the Red Sea
before Moses. Director John Badham captures the electric
connection between music and dance, and also the desperation
that lies beneath Tony's ambitions to break out of his
limited world. The soundtrack, which spawned a massively
successful album, is dominated by the disco classics of the
Bee Gees, including "Staying Alive" (Travolta's theme during
the strutting opening) and "Night Fever." The
Oscar®-nominated Travolta, plucked from the cast of Welcome
Back, Kotter, for his first starring role, is incandescent
and unbelievably confident, and his dancing is terrific. Oh,
and the white suit rules. -
from Robert Horton Amazon.com HERE

The Film:

"Saturday Night Fever" is an especially hard-edged case and a
very good movie. It's about a bunch of Brooklyn kids who aren't exactly
delinquents but are fearsomely tough and cynical and raise a lot of hell
on Saturday nights. They live for Saturday night, in fact: They hang
their gold chains around their necks and put on the new shirts they
bought with their Friday paychecks, and they head for a place called
2001 Odyssey, and they take pills and drink and, as Leo Sayer put
it, dance the night away. Occasionally they go out to the parking lot
for a session in the back seat with a girl.

John Travolta is the center of the crowd: He's Tony Manero, the best
dancer, the best looker, the guy with the most confidence. His life is
just as screwed up as everyone else's, but they don't know that, and
they tell him: "You know somethin', Tony? You always seem to be in
control."

He is not. He works all week at a paint and hardware store and comes
home to a family that worships his older brother, who is a priest. The
family's sketched briefly right at the beginning in a dinner scene
which, like the whole movie, is able to walk the tightrope between
what's funny and what's pathetic.

Firstly, despite some
reservations - this is a fabulous film experience in hi-def
- wow. I believe it was announced on the now defunct HD-DVD
format by Paramount but never surfaced but is officially now
on
Blu-ray.

Firstly, to get the bad out of
the way, there are edge-enhancement halos (see
HERE) visible, very sparingly, in this release. The
very few scenes that I noticed it were not the most
memorable/important of the film and I question the need to
have intensified the detail at those particular moments, but
- in no way - did it deter my total enjoyment of this film
in 1080P. This
Blu-ray
produces visuals that
has a realistic feel - the grittiness exists, but it is
cleaner, brighter and sharper. Skin-tones and contrast are
superb (some nighttime blacks are crushed) and there is a
bit of subtle grain. It fills the 1.78 frame and the feature
itself is over 30 Gig on the dual-layered
Blu-ray
disc. The bitrate is solid in the mid-to-high 30's. This
looked better than a 30-year old film should and it
maintains much of the cinematic essence. While I can't give
it a perfect score - my reaction to the film in motion was
as energetic as the dancing. Most fans won't be disappointed
at all.

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY
CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

Audio :

The Dolby
TrueHD 5.1 at 3389 kbps supports the film to a whole new level of
appreciation. I wouldn't say the range is overwhelming but the crispness
of the 'iconic disco' music with tracks like "Staying Alive", "Night
Fever", "Disco Inferno", "If I Can't Have You", "More Than A Woman" and
"How Deep Is Your Love", among many others, sounding tight and pure.
It's akin to SACD to my ears. The music in this film can be such an
important part of a viewing and this mix doesn't disappoint. I suppose
it could have more depth but remember that the film is more than a
30-year old production. I appreciated the way it spread throughout the
room and it was pretty hard not to pump the volume at times. There are
optional subtitles and my Momitsu
tells me this release is region-free!

Extras :

The supplements
are quite good despite the conspicuous absence of Travolta. Badham's 2.0
channel commentary is mixed quite well around the music and while he has
some information to impart - mostly about production - it doesn't seem
as though he is overly prepared - it's laid back with some amusing
anecdotes, some stuff about Travolta and is worth a listen if you are
keen on the film. There are about an hour's worth of HD featurettes
divided up with mostly the same participants chiming in from Stigwood,
some of the cast (Gorney, Pescow, Cali, Coppola, Miller etc.) - even
Barry Gibb. It's a bit of reminiscence but I think that's okay too.
There are 3 deleted scenes that were probably on the last DVD release.
The Blu-ray unique feature has a 70's Discopedia track running,
optionally, with the film with pop-up trivia on characters and details
etc. . I suppose fans could have wanted more supplements but it
seemed to fill my expectations - despite being left itchy for more of
Travolta input.

BOTTOM LINE:

A
couple o decades ago - my finds and I would quickly dismiss
Gene Siskel's opinion - touting this as his favorite
film of all time.
I really didn't think much of Saturday Night Fever and have
not seen it since my first viewing a long, long time ago. I
had a bit of an epiphany though with this
Blu-ray viewing. If the disco generation could have a Fred Astaire - it
would be Mr. Travolta. The camera just loves him - his face
especially being so descriptive to his characterizations.
Since Tony Manero had some basic similarities with
Welcome Back Kotter's Vinnie Barbarino - it was easy to
dismiss Travolta as incapable of showing a lot of range. I
think though that his acting is so good that it makes it
very easy to think Travolta actually is Manero (or
Barbarino). The pulsating darkness of Badham's film seems to
drastically intensify on
Blu-ray in my opinion. This is a disparagingly haunting take on maturation
and the music is so rhythmic that it can easily persuade you
away from that essence. Saturday Night Fever is no
simplistic musical vehicle for the lead star - he had a
spotlight on him well before this (some may recall Terrence
Malick desperately wanted Travolta for
Days of Heaven - eventually settling on Gere). It
transcends you to another time and place with abject realism
- Siskel was right - and this
Blu-ray does the job better than ever before for home theater viewing.
STRONG recommmendation!

Gary Tooze

April 28th, 2009

About the Reviewer:
Hello, fellow Beavers! I have been interested in film
since I viewed a Chaplin festival on PBS when I was
around 9 years old. I credit DVD with expanding my
horizons to fill an almost ravenous desire to seek out
new film experiences. I currently own approximately 7500
DVDs and have reviewed over 3000 myself. I appreciate my
discussion Listserv for furthering my film
education and inspiring me to continue running DVDBeaver.
Plus a healthy thanks to those who donate and use our
Amazon links.

Although I never wanted to become one of those guys who
focused 'too much' on image and sound quality - I
find HD is swiftly pushing me in that direction. So be
it, but film will always be my first love and I list my
favorites on the old YMdb site now accessible
HERE.